LisaLise Reviews 2019

Looking back over this past year, it's really no wonder that it feels like it just started a moment ago. 2019 has been filled with some amazing, fun, challenging, and utterly exhilarating projects.

Please join me for a quick view of this past year, a couple of updates of things you have been asking me about, and a preview of what's coming up next year.

Moved (again) But Got a Fab New Lab

If you have been following this blog for a few years, you may remember me moving, moving again, aaand moving again. This year, I moved yet again, but this move was special. This move included a brand new lab just for me.

To some, my lab may 'just' look like a workspace with ample drawers and cupboards but to me, it's a little slice of heaven and has quickly become my fave room of all.

Formulation Course at Tisserand Institute

It was in my new lab that much of the content for the free webinar and subsequent 8 week course at Tisserand Institute was developed. Creating and teaching the course filled much of the calendar, and while it has admittedly given me a few additional grey hairs (think worrying about getting everything done in time, remembering to include everything, doing a decent job of presenting, and generally fretting myself silly about whether or not everything was ok), I have honestly loved every minute.

What an incredible privilege it has been to work with Hana and Robert Tisserand. I am so grateful they invited me to become part of the Tisserand Institute family.

The course brought me in direct contact with a group of absolutely wonderful people - the folks who signed up. If you were among them, please allow me to thank you for making this experience such an immense pleasure!

Not only was everyone incredibly sweet and full of kind comments about the lessons (some of you brought a tear to my eye with your warm and wonderful feedback), but you also inspired me to get busy with a new book.

Essential Oils in the Bath - A New E-book

Even though I already had a few publications underway, they were temporarily set aside to make room for Create Your Own Bath Products with Essential Oils. 

One of the lessons in this summers course was about how to get essential oils to disperse completely and safely into a bath. The more I worked on formulas for the bath lesson, the more ideas kept popping up. Everything had to be tried and tested, and while a few of the formulas were covered in the lesson, the bulk of them became the basis of this book.

Every formula is developed with aromatherapists and essential oil enthusiasts in mind. In short, the formulas were all created to function as a base for essential oil blends.

The book has been incredibly well received, and I've set up a special discount for blog readers (that would be you). Pop in code TAKEABATH for a 10% discount at checkout.

New Team Members at Formulators Kitchen

The 'Kitchen' team has been super busy this year with formulation services, batch manufacturing safety assessment, and more. This has resulted in the addition of 2 fab folks. What a pleasure to welcome Cindy and Anubhuti to the team. We now have bragging rights of spanning 3 continents.

If you haven't checked it out yet, please pop over and meet the whole team right here. 

We have also seen an increase in members to the online community and are thrilled to see so many new contributors to the online database.

Want to join us? Please visit this page.

Working with Fabulous People Around the Globe

While this year has been non-stop work (read: Vacation and time off? What's that?) it has all been enjoyable - not least because of the many wonderful folks I work with and feel quite privileged to call friends as well as colleagues. Thank you Rebecca, Marie, Vivienne, Hana, Robert, Duncan, Colin, Anubhuti, Cindy, Ariane, and Lorraine for helping to make a non-stop work year such a pleasure.

And You Made it Even Better

I'll bet you thought I forgot you in all this. No way. You have been amazing this year. Whether you are a subscriber to this blog, my main blog, my newsletter or follow me on Instagram or Facebook - your comments, questions, and feedback has been inspiring, kind, honest, and truly heartwarming. Thank you for sharing your experiences, asking intriguing questions, inspiring new ideas, and spreading positivity.

You have absolutely rocked 2019!

Still Working on it

A few things I haven't blogged about very much this year but am still working on:

Hurdle Technology Stuff: 
I have continued to work on several hurdle technology-based projects - a couple of which have surprised me by holding steady for 2 full years. Last year I promised to update you on them, but it will probably be a bit longer as the test results are surpassing even my wildest expectations. In short; I haven't forgotten your many queries!

Plant Pigments for Makeup: 
I am also still tweaking, testing, and working on numerous plant-pigments specifically for use as make-up ingredients. This too, has gotten scads of queries from you (thank you one and all for asking!), and the progress is so good I've been doing quite a bit of happy dancing. I can confidently say that lipstick definitely can grow on bushes. There are piles and piles of notes to go through and loads of you have asked if there is going to be a book on this. It has been my plan and still is, but it's too soon to give you a date.. yet.

What's up in 2020

More formulating, more books and more projects. What? You want specifics? OK: I specifically promise there will be more formulating going on, more books in the works, more experimentation with ingredients and production methods, and more exciting projects coming up.

Have a wonderful New Years Eve.

See you in 2020!